...Brooke left her writing to follow the sound. Nicole looked up after her, but knowing her sister's overimaginative tendencies, decided to let her be. Brooke ran through the weeds (making more noise than the rustling sound earlier) and came directly upon a hackberry tree. Nicole had identified this tree before, and the girls were particularly astonished by its wide trunk and the opening therein.
The first time the girls came upon the tree they wanted to make the hollow their hideaway. However, the grassy patch by the stream suited their spirits better and they forgot about the tree. Today the tree was different than Brooke had remembered it to be. Curious as to what this strange feeling she had could be, she stepped inside the hollow. At first it was black as pitch, but then, oh but then something sounded magical! A tinkling sound like chimes in the wind filled her ears. A beautiful red glow cut through the darkness. After a few moments Brooke realized what she had stumbled upon. The sight took her breath away.
It was a pair of slippers, red as rubies. Sparkling and shining all on their own. Brooke had only heard of the powerful shoes in a story before (her favorite, she would remind me). For them to be just inches away from her fingertips seemed too good to be true.
She was paralyzed by their beauty, but slowly stopped down to admire them closer. Their magic must have been producing the tinkling music, it grew louder as Brooke drew closer. She carefully reached out her hands and touched the sparkling, jewel encrusted bow of one. She knew where the shoes had been (from the story), bemused she tried to conceive why they would appear here in her wood.
Carefully grabbing the glistening pair of shoes she started off to find her sister. "Nicole always has the answers," she assured herself. And she started back to their special spot. When she arrived, Nicole stood up so fast she nearly ruined her tea pot. She was astonished at the sight of her sister carrying the magical red shoes.
"Wherever did you find them?" Nicole marveled at the slippers.
"They were inside the hollow of the hackberry tree, just sitting there!" Brooke exclaimed. "Almost as if they were there for us to find!"
"How could such a pair of slippers ever find themselves here, in our wood, out so far in the country?" Nicole pondered.
Brooke thought for a moment about her favorite story. The girl wearing them, Dorothy, had used them to get back home. On her way they fell off. Maybe, just maybe, they fell off here! Nicole laughed as Brooke explained her theory.
"Shoes wouldn't fall neatly into the hollow of a tree... But maybe magical shoes would," she countered.
"The question is what will we do with them," Brooke said gravely. "We don't want them the end up in the wrong hands."
"Then we must keep them safe at home," Nicole stated. "Let us pack our things. If I magical shoes are showing up in our wood, there's no telling what else may be lurking around."
Packing up their totes, Brooke gently placed the slipper inside and covered them with her notebook to dim their glow. Walking through the field, wild flowers blooming and weeds bending in the wind; it felt like the longest journey home. The tinkling of the slippers was distracting, but not nearly as much as the mystery of how the magical slippers had made their way into Brooke and Nicole's reality.
Their evening at home went as usual. Brooke stowed her tote underneath her bed and washed up for dinner with her sister. They ate and then enjoyed family time around the radio. Singing and sharing stories of the past. At half past eight Mother and Father kissed them and sent them to bed. But Brooke wasn't able to sleep. The distant chime of the slippers kept her heart racing, and the glow of the rubies seemed to grow brighter and brighter.
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